The potential of pollen analyses from urban deposits: multivariate … · 2018-01-25 · The...

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The potential of pollen analyses from urban deposits: multivariatestatistical analysis of a data set from the medieval city of Prague,Czech Republic

Radka Kozakova Æ Petr Pokorny Æ Jan Havrda ÆVlasta Jankovska

Received: 1 July 2008 / Accepted: 6 May 2009

� Springer-Verlag 2009

Abstract In the 12th and 13th centuries, the land which is

now the Czech Republic underwent deep social and land-

scape changes, defined by historians and archaeologists as

a transitional period between the early and late medieval

periods. This study aims to analyze this transition as

reflected by 142 pollen spectra from urban deposits so far

excavated in the city of Prague. Multivariate statistics and

critical assessment of the results has brought general con-

clusions on the potential of pollen analysis for urban

archaeological research. They reveal an early medieval

urban environment as a fine mosaic formed by extensive

management, and composed of many habitats without

sharp borders between them. Since human impact

increased with time and the use of land became more

rationalized and intensive, this mosaic developed a rela-

tively coarser structure in the high medieval period. Our

results support findings of the earlier subjective and

uncertain characteristics of two differing types of medieval

pollen spectra (Cerealia-dominated ones with low pollen

diversity versus those with a higher proportion of arboreal

and wild herbal pollen and high pollen diversity) obtained

from various archaeological sites.

Keywords Early medieval � High medieval �Urban archaeobotany � Archaeological layers �Pollen taphonomy � Multivariate statistics

Introduction

Archaeology of medieval Prague

Prague (Praha) is situated in the centre of Bohemia, in a

basin formed on both banks of the river Vltava. The set-

tlement history of early medieval Prague has been mainly

studied from archaeological excavations, as the first written

sources only date from the tenth century. However, there is

no general consensus about the beginnings of local early

medieval settlement there. Some excavations have shown

human activity in Mala Strana (Lesser Town) as early as

the eighth century (Fig. 1). During the ninth century,

Prazsky hrad (Prague Castle) was gradually established as

the seat of the ruling Czech duke. By the tenth century

there already existed a fortified settlement over an area of

35 ha directly below Prague Castle. A few other villages

spread to the south, west and east of this fortified

agglomeration (Cihakova and Havrda 2008). The detailed

structure and organization of early medieval settlement on

the left bank of the Vltava is not yet clear. So far we can

Communicated by M. Latalowa.

R. Kozakova (&)

Department of Botany, Faculty of Natural Sciences,

Charles University of Prague, Benatska 2,

128 01 Prague, Czech Republic

e-mail: [email protected]

R. Kozakova � P. Pokorny

Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech

Republic, Letenska 4, 118 01 Prague, Czech Republic


J. Havrda

National Institute for the Protection and Conservation

of Monuments and Sites National Institute of the Care

of Monuments, Na Perstyne 12, 110 00 Prague,

Czech Republic


V. Jankovska

Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,

Kvetna 170/8, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic


123

Veget Hist Archaeobot

DOI 10.1007/s00334-009-0217-7

only guess from some excavated foot-paths and the

remains of non-agrarian activities such as the production of

iron ore, which could have been mined at Mala Strana in

the close vicinity of the settled area (Havrda et al. 2001).

Until the end of the tenth century, the settlement which

was to become Prague was spread solely on the left bank of

the Vltava. The opposite bank originally served as a place

for funerals and by the end of the tenth century it started to

be used by ironworkers. At the same time, the Vysehrad

castle was established here. Archaeological excavations on

one of the former river islands have found an early medi-

eval field close to a village (Hrdlicka 1972). In the twelfth

century Prague grew into a large settlement and finally into

a high medieval town. It had two castles and was built from

wood, clay and sometimes stone. There was a stone bridge

connecting the old centre of Prague with a yet unfortified

part of the town on the right bank where the main market at

the place of present-day Staromestske namestı (Old Town

Square) was situated. The thirteenth century brought many

radical changes that gradually affected the whole country

and hence are referred to as the Great Medieval Change

(Klapste 2006). During this time Romanesque Prague,

which had so far developed spontaneously, was trans-

formed into a Gothic town with a strictly organized

structure.

Closely connected with the interpretation of pollen

spectra from urban deposits is the matter of waste disposal.

The character of anthropogenic urban deposits reveals much

about the approach of the inhabitants towards their envi-

ronment. There are two distinct types of urban anthropogenic

Fig. 1 Map of Prague with old settlement zones marked. Points show

archaeological sites from which pollen data were used in this study.

Numbers of sites correspond to numbers in Table 1. Prague castle—

Prazsky hrad, Lesser Town—Mala Strana, Old Town—Stare Mesto,

New Town—Nove Mesto, Vysehrad—Vysehrad


123

strata, differing in their type of deposition—an older, unor-

ganised type and a later, regulated one. The transition

between them follows the transformation of early medieval

Romanesque Prague into a high medieval Gothic city

(Hrdlicka 2000a). In the first phase, waste was deposited in

the form of cultural layers in backyards; in the second phase,

deep pits for rubbish were dug instead and also many old

wells or sand pits were re-used for waste deposition. An

alternative was to throw waste over the town walls. The

deliberate and organized treatment of street surfaces and

routes started only in the second third of the fourteenth

century (Ledvinka and Pesek 2000). From then on, streets

were paved and regularly cleaned. During the fourteenth

century, the streets of Prague acquired their final structure—

one that is still the same in today’s city centre.

Urban pollen analysis

The study of continuous profiles through natural sediments

that contain a record of a relatively long time-span, aiming

at the reconstruction of past landscapes, can be considered

as the traditional methodological basis for pollen analysis.

Peat and lake deposits are then the material of choice.

Under such circumstances, pollen analysis has a more or

less adequate spatial and taxonomic resolution. Pollen

analysis as a part of archaeobotanical research has a dif-

ferent position, as the expectations are fundamentally dif-

ferent. Urban archaeobotany is mostly connected with

deposits made by humans that were formed over relatively

short time periods. It is mostly focused on some special

problems concerning human subsistence and these are

usually successfully resolved by the analysis of macro-

remains as a rule (Jacomet 1994; Karg 1995; Hellwig 1997;

Rosch 1998; Borojevic 2005; Ruas 2005 and many others).

Even though some papers point out the value of pollen

analyses in connection with questions relating to past diet

(for example Kalis et al. 2005), the role of pollen analysis

in such research remains a subsidiary one compared to the

analysis of plant macro-remains.

A bigger random component is one aspect in which the

taphonomy of microscopic pollen grains is different from

seeds and fruits (Greig 1982; Schofield 1994). Also, taxo-

nomic problems play an important role as pollen types often

include groups of species which differ in ecological char-

acteristics. On the other hand, some non-pollen microscopic

objects preserved in pollen samples, such as ova of intestinal

parasites, can yield interesting supplementary information

(Kalis et al. 2005; Wiethold 1999, 2000a, b, 2001).

Owing to the above-mentioned problems, it is obvious

that the potential of pollen analysis as a sovereign part of

archaeobotanical research of urban deposits is not yet

clear—and this is what we would like to address in this

paper. To this end, we use an example from historical

Prague, the present-day capital of the Czech Republic. We

believe that a critical assessment of our data set should

result in some general conclusions concerning the potential

of pollen analysis for use in urban archaeological research.

We should be able to see how sensitive pollen analysis can

be and what aspects it can reveal. Once known, we should

be able to give some advice leading to improved sampling

and research strategies.

Vegetation background

Although situated in a lowland valley, the area of Prague

city is highly diverse in terms of its bedrock, soils and

morphological relief. Without human influence, the local

vegetation would be mixed deciduous woodland with

dominant Quercus petraea, Q. robur, Carpinus betulus,

Tilia cordata and T. platyphyllos. Among other tree taxa

could be mentioned Acer pseudoplatanus, A. platanoides,

Ulmus glabra, U. minor, U. laevis, Fraxinus excelsior,

Alnus glutinosa, Prunus padus, Betula pendula and Pinus

sylvestris (Moravec and Neuhausl 1991). Fagus sylvatica,

Abies alba and Picea abies could grow primarily on

northern slopes or in the bottom of narrow valleys. The

area of Prague has many places where secondary biotopes

of xerophilous grasslands mainly belonging to the Festuco-

Brometea class could develop. Other common non-arboreal

vegetation would be mesophilous or wet meadows and

pastures with taxa more recently belonging to the orders

Arrhenatheretalia and Molinietalia (Ellenberg 1988).

Materials and methods

Pollen data set from medieval Prague

In the city of Prague there are several archaeological sites

where pollen analyses have been performed and where

particular researchers have striven to draw a picture of the

local environmental and vegetation conditions (Jankovska

1987, 1991, 1997; Pokorny 2000; Benes et al. 2002; Ko-

zakova and Pokorny 2007; Kozakova and Bohacova 2008).

This effort has so far been rather unsystematic, each

particular study site being considered in isolation from the

others. Moreover, the interpretation of pollen data has

always been somewhat subjective. Here we would like to

study a data set from Prague as a whole, consisting of 15

sites and 142 samples, using multivariate statistics. We ask

the following questions:

– What feature or factor causes the largest differences

between samples?

– Are there any specific pollen spectra for particular

archaeological contexts?


123

– Are social and cultural changes that happened in

Prague during the thirteenth century somehow reflected

in the composition of pollen spectra?

– Does pollen diversity change with time?

The analyzed data set includes samples from various

archaeological sites and contexts (Table 1). In some cases,

the exact character of excavated layers was unclear and it

therefore remained unspecified. Since all the analyzed data

comes from the authors of this paper, their original data

were used in most cases. The pollen data set from Prague

includes 76 early medieval samples dated before the thir-

teenth century and 66 samples of late medieval age

(Table 1). Thus both the very early and later phases of the

town’s development are well represented.

The list of main pollen taxa identified in analyzed

samples is included as a legend to Fig. 2. The nomencla-

ture of plant taxa follows Kubat (2002). Pollen types were

defined and modified according to Moore et al. (1991),

Reille (1992), Beug (2004) and Punt (1980). Pollen

nomenclature respects the following conventions:

1. The name of a pollen type is identical to a taxon name

(of any rank) if the pollen type represents this taxon

and no other. Examples: Centaurea cyanus, Salix,

Cyperaceae.

2. The name of a pollen type has the suffix ‘type’ if it

could represent a taxon or taxa other than the taxon

mentioned in the pollen type. Examples: Trifolium

repens type, Aster type. In this case pollen types

include taxa according to Beug (2004).

3. The name of a pollen type representing two taxa only

consists of both taxon names separated by a slash.

Examples: Sambucus nigra/S. racemosa.

4. All these pollen-morphological considerations are

restricted to taxa occurring at present in the Czech

Republic and within an altitude corresponding to the

studied locality (Prague basin in the Czech

thermophyticum, up to approximately 300 m asl.)

Data analyses

The pollen data set from medieval urban deposits in Prague

was processed by multivariate statistical methods with

Canoco (Leps and Smilauer 2003). Principle component

analysis (PCA) was used to show the independent distri-

bution of the pollen taxa. The influence of three environ-

mental variables—archaeological context, age and pollen

diversity—was investigated using redundancy analysis

(RDA). Data were transformed by the square roots method,

and standardized over taxa and samples in order to

strengthen the role of rare taxa and equalize the impact of

pollen sums counted. To reduce the effect of the low

number of samples compared to the number of variables,

taxa with extremely low ratios (mostly one pollen grain per

sample) connected with rare occurrences (not more than in

five samples) were excluded from the database.

The analyzed samples were derived from sites where the

archaeological research had a rescue character. For this

reason, samples were dated archaeologically, which due to

the lack of time often resulted in greater date ranges. For

statistical analysis, it was necessary to use a single date—

derived as the mean value of each particular age range

given in Table 1. The pollen diversity coefficient was

derived from the results of Rarefaction Analysis using the

Polish palynological program, POLPAL (Nalepka and

Walanus 2003).

Results

The data set includes 142 samples and 97 taxa which

resulted in relatively low percentages of overall explained

variability by the first three axes of the PCA plot (Fig. 2).

Our recent database consists of data that are highly diver-

sified. This is why a greater number of analysed samples

would be needed to get stronger statistical results. In the

case of direct multivariate analyses (RDA), the F values

are relatively high when testing the roles of age and

diversity. Archaeological context turned out to be a less

strong factor. This is primarily caused by unequal repre-

sentation of particular archaeological contexts (see

Table 1) and by the distribution of a relatively small

number of samples among many environmental variables.

Bearing in mind these problems of our database, we are

sure that the statistics described all the major trends in the

data set that were evident even from preliminary subjective

evaluations of the pollen results.

A dominant feature that repeats in all data visualizations

(Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5) is the contrast between anthropogenic and

natural pollen spectra. Strong anthropogenic impact is

represented by pollen from crops and weeds—Cerealia,

Chenopodiaceae, Centaurea cyanus, Brassicaceae, Arctium

or Viciaceae. The pollen of imported plants such as Myr-

tus/Eugenia type, Oleaceae or Fagopyrum also belongs to

human-induced spectra. The same is true for the empty ova

of parasites indicating some faecal pollution of analyzed

sediments—Trichuris and Ascaris. The correlation of

Calluna vulgaris with all these pollen types probably

shows that this dwarf shrub was collected and used for

some special purpose in medieval households.

The extremely non-natural character of the pollen

spectra gradually changes into a relatively natural one as

expressed by the arrow in the PCA diagram (Fig. 2).

Samples between these two extremes are characterised by


123

the presence of quite special weeds such as Nigella

arvensis or Valerianella. In the same spectra, some pollen

types can originate from grazed thermophilous vegeta-

tion—Eryngium, Falcaria type or Carduus. Apiaceae

pollen type may include plants growing in both natural and

synanthropic biotopes which is a good reason for being in

the middle of this gradient. Other ‘‘transitional’’ taxa are

Campanula, Centaurea jacea/C. stoebe, Reseda, Cirsium,

Sambucus and Acer. Their pollen certainly belongs to

plants that could have grown on human-influenced sites

within the interior of the town. A special case is apparently

Acer; the large numbers of its pollen grains in some sam-

ples are striking (Kozakova and Pokorny 2007). In these

cases we may have expected something other than pollen

of wind-blown origin: leafy branches (together with the

flowers) might have been brought to the site for cattle

fodder (Greig 1982). This interpretation seems to corre-

spond well with the relatively weak correlation of Acer

with other trees (Fig. 2).

Samples bearing more natural pollen spectra are always

relatively rich in arboreal pollen. In these samples pollen of

Pinus, Abies, Betula, Corylus, Alnus and partly of Fagus is

Table 1 List of sites included in statistical analyses

Site

number

Site name Publication Archaeological dating Archaeological

context

Number

of

analysed

samples

Pollen

analysis

made by

Source of

pollen

data

1 Olivova ulice Starec

(2000c)

15th or turn of 15th and 16th cent. Infilled pit 6 Jankovska Original

data

2 U Radnice Dragoun

(1984,

1988)

Middle of 15th cent Infilled pit 6 Jankovska Jankovska

(1987)

3 Vaclavske

namestı

1282/II

Starec

(2000a)

Turn of 14th and 15th cent Infilled well 2 Jankovska Original

data

4 Na Prıkope Benes et al.

(2002)

Turn of 14th and 15th cent Dump site layers infilled

moat

16 Pokorny Original

data

5 Klementinum Havrda

(2000,

2001)

Turn of 13th and 14th cent. Infilled pit 1 Jankovska Original

data

6 Ungelt 630 Richterova

1998a, b

Turn of 13th and 14th cent. Bottom of well 1 Jankovska Original

data

7 Alsovo

nabrezı

Starec

(2000b)

From 12th up to the 16th cent Dump site 10 Jankovska Original

data

8 Tynsky dvur

1049/I

Hrdlicka

(1990b,

2000b)

Second third of 13th cent Unspecified 5 Jankovska Original

data

9 Tynsky dvur Hrdlicka

(1990a,

1998)

From second half of 12th

to first third of 13th cent.

Drainage ditch 3 Jankovska Jankovska

(1991)

10 Malostranske

namestı

260/III

Unpublished Turn of 14th and 15th cent. (6 samp.); turn

of 13th and 14th cent. (2 samp.); 11th

cent. (1samp.); 10th cent. (1 samp.); 9th

century (5 samp.); break of 9th and 10th

cent. (11 samp.)

Infilled moat (6 samp.),

path deposits (6 samp.),

cultural layers (5

samp.), unspecified (9)

26 Kozakova Original

data

11 Valdstejnska

ulice

Unpublished End of 10th cent. (8 samp.); from middle

of 13th to 15th cent. (8 samp.)

Cultural layers (10 samp.),

path deposits (6 samp.)

16 Kozakova Original

data

12 Trziste 259/

III

Cihakova

(1995,

1996)

Turn of 10th and 11th cent Unspecified 19 Jankovska Jankovska

(1997)

13 Prazsky hrad Bohacova

(1998)

First half of 10th cent Cultural layers 9 Kozakova Original

data

14 Mostecka

ulice

Cihakova

(1998a, b)

Turn of 9th and 10th cent Unspecified 19 Jankovska Original

data

15 Hartigovsky

palac

Unpublished Turn of 7th and 8th cent. Cultural layers 3 Kozakova Original

data


123

rather ubiquitous. On the other hand pollen of Tilia,

Fraxinus, Salix, Prunus type and partly also of Quercus

and Carpinus occurs in samples often together with various

herbal pollen taxa indicating relatively natural biotopes

such as Filipendula, Cyperaceae, Melampyrum, Thalic-

trum, Pulsatilla, Hypericum, Valeriana officinalis, Poten-

tilla/Fragaria, Helianthemum etc. In contrast, vectors of

the former group tend towards the non-natural pole toge-

ther with Alchemilla, Rubiaceae, Plantago major/P. media,

Gramineae, Centaurea scabiosa and Artemisia pollen types

(Fig. 2). Key non-arboreal pollen taxa that give a more

natural character to the pollen spectra are representatives of

xerophilous grasslands—Helianthemum, Pulsatilla, Sedum,

Hypericum, Melampyrum, Potentilla/Fragaria and

Odontites, and also taxa from wet habitats—Filipendula

ulmaria/F. vulgaris, Humulus/Cannabis, Cyperaceae,

Solanum dulcamara and Thalictrum cf. flavum. These are

correlated with certain weeds like Cerinthe, Anchusa/Pul-

monaria, Adonis aestivalis/A. flammea, Solanum nigrum

and Matricaria type, and with ruderal or meadow taxa such

as Galeopsis/Ballota type, Veronica type, Mentha type,

Rumex acetosa type, Cerastium, Scrophulariaceae, Trifo-

lium repens type, Trifolium pratense type and Plantago

lanceolata. Amongst typical ruderals, Urtica and Polygo-

num aviculare occur in samples often together with the

above mentioned pollen types.

The positions of pollen types on a gradient from strongly

human-induced to more natural deposits are similar on the

Fig. 2 PCA analysis showing distribution of taxa on first two axes.

Explained variability by first three axes is 12.1, 6.1, 5.0%, respec-

tively. The arrow expresses a gradient from highly human-induced

pollen spectra to more natural ones Abi-Abies alba, Acer-Acer, Adon-

Adonis aestivalis/A. flammea, Alch-Alchemilla, Aln-Alnus, Anch-

Anchusa/Pulmonaria, Anthoc-Anthoceros punctatus, Api-Apiaceae,

Arcti-Arctium, Artem-Artemisia, Aster-Aster type, Asc-Ascaris,

Astrag-Astragalus, Bet-Betula, Brass-Brassicaceae, Bupl-Bupleurumfalcatum type, Callun-Calluna vulgaris, Camp-Campanula/Phyteu-ma, Card-Carduus, Carp-Carpinus betulus, Cenc-Centaurea cyanus,

Cenj-Centaurea jacea/C. stoebe, Cens-Centaurea scabiosa, Ceras-

Cerastium, Cereal-Cerealia, Cerint-Cerinthe minor, Chen-Chenopo-

diaceae, Cirs-Cirsium, Cons-Consolida regalis, Coryl-Corylus avell-ana, Cyp-Cyperaceae, Ering-Eryngium, Fag-Fagus sylvatica, Fagop-

Fagopyrum, Falc-Falcaria vulgaris type, Fenes-Asteraceae-Fenestra-

tae, Filip-Filipendula ulmaria/F. vulgaris, Frax-Fraxinus, GalB-

Galeopsis-Ballota type, Gram-Gramineae, Hede-Hedera helix, Heli-

Helianthemum, HumCan-Humulus/Cannabis, Hyp-Hypericum,

Lycclav-Lycopodium clavatum, Matr-Matricaria type, Melam-Me-lampyrum, Men-Mentha type, monsp-monolete spore, Myrt- Myrtus/

Eugenia typ, Niga-Nigella arvensis, Odon-Odontites, Oleac-Olea-

ceae, Paprh-Papaver rhoeas type, Pinus-Pinus sylvestris, Planl-

Plantago lanceolata, Planm-Plantago major/P. media, Polavi-Poly-gonum aviculare, Pote-Potentilla/Fragaria type, Prun-Prunus type,

Puls-Pulsatilla, Quer-Quercus, Ranfam-Ranunculaceae, Ransc-

Ranunculus sceleratus type, Resed-Reseda, Rosfam-Rosaceae,

Rhin-Rhinanthus/Euphrasia, Rubi-Rubiaceae, Rumac-Rumex acetosatype, Rumaq—Rumex aquaticus type, Salix-Salix, Samb-Sambucusnigra/S.racemosa, Scab-Scabiosa, Sclerann—Scleranthus annuus,

Scroph-Scrophulariaceae, Sec-Secale cereale, Sed-Sedum, Soldul-

Solanum dulcamara, Solnig-Solanum nigrum, Tilia-Tilia, Thali-

Thalictrum, Thec-Thecaphora, Trichur-Trichuris, Trifp-Trifoliumpratense type, Trifr-Trifolium repens type, Urti-Urtica, Valla-Vale-rianella, Valoff-Valeriana officinalis, Ver-Veronica type, Vic-Viciatype, and Vicfam-Viciaceae


123

RDA diagram that shows the archaeological context of

analyzed samples (Fig. 3). Here the more natural pollen

spectra are derived from cultural layers and partly from

path deposits and from an unspecified archaeological

context. More human-induced spectra have pollen of Se-

cale cereale, Cerealia, Fagopyrum, Scleranthus annuus,

Centaurea cyanus, Myrtus/Eugenia, Oleaceae and Brass-

icaceae and are typical of the infills of dump sites, moats,

Fig. 3 RDA analysis testing the

impact of the archaeological

context. Cumulative explained

variability: (a) first three

canonical axes: 5.5, 8.2, 9.6%.

Significance of canonical axes

together: F = 2.5; P = 0.002.

pit infilled pit, dump dump site,

moat infilled moat, drainsediment from drainage ditch,

unspec unspecified character of

archaeological layer, pathdeposit from a path, cult cultural

layer


impact of pollen diversity and

age. Cumulative explained

variability: (a) canonical axes:

6.7%, 9.9%; (b) noncanonical

axis 15.8%. Significance of

canonical axes together:

F = 7.4; P = 0.002. diversitpollen diversity, age mean value

of an interval dated

archaeologically (see Table 1)


123

drainage ditches and pits (Fig. 3). The same applies to

Chenopodiaceae and Alchemilla, which could be a part of

the local vegetation accompanying these sites. In accord

with the waste character of such sediments, the ova of the

intestinal parasite Trichuris are also present. The correla-

tion of Calluna vulgaris pollen with pits again points

towards some special use of this plant in medieval house-

holds. Waste deposits are further correlated with monolete

spores belonging to ferns, Lycopodium clavatum, Anthoc-

eros punctatus and also with the sporangia of the parasitic

fungus Thecaphora.

Pollen spectra rich in the pollen of trees, shrubs and taxa

growing on meadows and pastures come from cultural layers

and partly from path deposits and from unspecified archae-

ological contexts (Fig. 3). These sediments must have had

some input from hay or the dung of cattle that grazed

somewhere around the town. In contrast to sites where waste

was intentionally thrown away, these sediments were

deposited rather by chance. They thus yield much more

complex information about the plant taxa and biotopes that

were a part of the vegetation within and around a settled area.

There is a significant difference between the early and

high medieval pollen spectra (Fig. 5) and at the same time

pollen diversity is negatively correlated with age (Fig. 4).

Woodlands are generally better represented in early medie-

val samples. The main non-arboreal pollen types character-

istic of early medieval samples are Melampyrum, Centaurea

scabiosa, Potentilla/Fragaria, Scabiosa, Humulus/Canna-

bis, Filipendula ulmaria/F. vulgaris, Valeriana officinalis,

Mentha type, Hedera helix, Helianthemum, Hypericum,

Rhinanthus type and some others. Negatively correlated with

age are also several representatives of the common synan-

thropic flora—Plantago lanceolata, Plantago major/P.

media, Rumex acetosa type, Artemisia, Fallopia convolvu-

lus/F. dumetorum, Aster type, Galeopsis/Ballota type or

Apiaceae. Here it probably means that these taxa have higher

ratios in older sediments.

A reliable indicator of high medieval deposits is the

presence of Centaurea cyanus pollen grains (Figs. 4, 5). As

cereals probably remained the main source of nutrition

throughout the whole medieval period, its correlation with

increasing age is not strong. Generally, it can be inferred

that pollen taxa correlated with a high medieval age are the

same as those correlated with a lower pollen diversity and

from deposits of a waste character (Figs. 3, 5). These are

again Brassicaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Fagopyrum, Arctium,

Calluna vulgaris, Eugenia/Myrtus, Oleaceae and such non-

pollen objects as Lycopodium clavatum, Trichuris, Theca-

phora and monolete spores of ferns.

Discussion

Pollen analysis of urban anthropogenic deposits

in general

Compared to plant macroremains, pollen can be better

transported by air and its taphonomy is generally more


impact of age. Cumulative

explained variability: (a)

canonical axis: 5.9%; (b)

noncanonical axis 13.0, 18.0%.

Significance of canonical axes

together: F = 8.6; P = 0.002


123

‘‘fuzzy’’. It is often the case that numerous taxa belonging

to meadow and pasture vegetation leave only their pollen

grains but no seeds or fruits in analyzed sediments

(Wiethold 1999, 2000a, b, 2001; Kozakova and Bohacova

2008). It is for this reason that we think that all components

of pollen spectra can be considered at much more of a

‘‘landscape level’’, in contrast to plant macroremains. Of

course, the ratios between the revealed pollen types do not

correspond to the ratios found in real vegetation, which is

the main problem that pollen analysis from cultural

deposits must face. Due to the complicated human-induced

taphonomy, the modern analogue approach (Sugita 1994;

Sugita et al. 1999; Bunting et al. 2004; Brostrom et al.

2005; Court-Picon et al. 2005) can be hardly applied here.

Hence when interpreting these pollen spectra we have to

gain as much as possible from qualitative information.

It can be reasonably argued that such research is better

performed from an off-site natural profile and not from

particular cultural layers. Unfortunately, it is rarely possi-

ble to find a natural sedimentary record in the form of peat

or lake sediments containing pollen grains within or very

close to the studied urban agglomeration in question

(Seppa 1997; Newman et al. 2007). When reconstructing

the vegetation of an urban environment by means of pollen

analysis we must settle for archaeological layers due to the

above-mentioned problems.

There is no doubt that analysis of macroremains can also

say much about the environmental conditions prevailing in

a town (Culıkova 1995; Latałowa et al. 2003; Vermeeren

and Gumbert 2008) and the use of both methods together

will provide the best results (Vuorela and Lempiainen

1993; Latałowa 1999; Wiethold 1999, 2000a, b, 2001).

Nevertheless, this paper has aimed to throw some light on

the potential of pollen analysis by itself. Moreover, there

are no complete plant macroremains data sets for the sites

analysed in this article.

Pollen data set from medieval Prague

In the case of our data from Prague, we have to face up to

the risk of making a circular argument. We have studied

pollen spectra from early medieval anthropogenic deposits

and we can generalize that they always contain many

pollen types indicating relatively natural biotopes. At the

same time, early medieval strata are always less defined so

that we call them mostly ‘‘cultural layers’’. We anticipate

that in the case of such ‘‘cultural layers’’, pollen sources

were numerous. Along with these, we have also studied

pollen spectra from high medieval anthropogenic deposits.

In their case we can generalize that they are less diverse,

containing less arboreal pollen and herbal taxa indicating

relatively natural biotopes. High medieval strata are much

more defined in their taphonomy compared to early

medieval ones—we are able to distinguish wells, pits,

dump sites etc. In this case we suspect that the number of

pollen sources was limited, because such archaeological

features used to serve for a particular purpose and thus

were more ‘‘closed’’ in a taphonomic sense. It is not pos-

sible to study medieval pollen samples from the same

archaeological contexts, simply because urban deposits

useful for pollen analysis almost completely changed with

the start of the high medieval period. Consequently we

cannot say to what extent the differences between early and

high medieval pollen spectra do reflect real vegetation

changes, because our pollen results are also influenced by

social modifications connected with a different organiza-

tion of the urban environment. Yet we can be sure that

some alternations of vegetation inside and around the

medieval town of Prague happened throughout the time.

Abrupt changes in the landscape at the start of the high

medieval period are very obvious even from pollen dia-

grams derived from natural sediments (mostly peat) found

in the central Bohemian lowlands surrounding Prague

(Pokorny 2005). These changes reflect enormous intensi-

fication of human pressure associated with marked loss of

woodland during the transition from the early to the high

medieval period. We can consider that human impact,

gradually increasing over time, caused an overall reduction

of vegetation diversity. The human component that is

stronger in the case of urban deposits than in natural ones

principally enriches the herbal component of pollen spec-

tra. These specifics of urban deposits enabled us to study in

more detail the process of medieval changes that also

affected vegetation composition. According to our pollen

data from the medieval city of Prague, it seems to us that

the urban environment represents a different sort of cultural

landscape that underwent parallel changes to those of the

landscape from a general point of view.

Changes in a medieval landscape

To start with more concrete conclusions, we can draw

particular examples of how overall medieval changes

affected the urban and surrounding vegetation. We think

that arboreal pollen was mostly transported by wind even

in the case of urban deposits. Pollen of trees can be

therefore considered as a mainly natural component of an

otherwise mostly human-induced taphonomy of pollen

spectra. Hence the relative proportions of particular tree

taxa correspond to their real ratios in woodland vegetation,

while considering their different pollen production and

transport. Around early medieval Prague there still were

some woods with a diversified species structure. Quercus,

Tilia, Fagus, Abies, Betula, Corylus, Salix, Alnus (Fig. 5)

and other trees must have been common in the landscape.

Although we do not know how many and how far from


123

sampling sites they were, we can see that all the main taxa

that correspond to the geographical and relief conditions of

the Prague basin were present (Moravec-Neuhausl et al.

1991). The numbers of tree pollen grains decline in time.

The affinity of Picea with later periods (Fig. 5) does not

necessarily mean that it spread at the expense of other

disappearing tree taxa. Spruce is not a pioneer species nor

is the lowland geographical position of Prague optimal for

its growth. Since the first though still rare intentional

planting of Picea occurred in Bohemia as far back as

during the seventeenth century (Nozicka 1957), this also

cannot be an explanatory factor that caused the larger

amounts of its pollen in later samples. Thus we have to

leave this result without any interpretation. In any case, it is

certain that human pressure on natural biotopes strength-

ened throughout the high medieval period in general. The

pollen of Calluna vulgaris whose ratio increases with time

(Fig. 5) can come from oligotrophic grazed land or directly

from heaths that remained around Prague until the middle

of the twentieth century. According to relatively low

numbers of Calluna tetrads found in the deposits of

medieval Prague, it seems unlikely that it was used for

roofing or flooring as was common in England (Greig

1982; Schofield 1994).

Many pollen taxa representing meadow and pasture

vegetation are virtually absent from the high medieval

samples. These biotopes (Bromion-like grasslands with

Helianthemum, Centaurea scabiosa, Scabiosa or Hyperi-

cum) are present in Prague even in recent times. Therefore

it is clear that they could not have disappeared from high

medieval Prague during medieval times, but they became

less widespread. The high medieval town with its planned

urban layout could have got rid of many small pieces of

grasslands that must have been a part of the more chaotic

early medieval village-like settled area. Some gradual

changes of taphonomy from unorganised deposition into a

more regulated one could have impoverished pollen spectra

as well. Thus later sediments were probably not receiving

deposits of hay or cattle dung to the same degree as older

ones. The determination of fungal spores indicating cattle

faeces (Van Geel et al. 2003) could help to support this

conclusion in future research. The organization of the

settled area must have also resulted in certain changes in

the composition of urban ruderal vegetation that is rather

poor in high medieval samples (Fig. 5).

It is evident that the relatively high pollen diversity,

characteristic of the early medieval samples, involves a

whole range of biotopes, from ruderal to woodland ones. It

reveals an early medieval landscape as a fine mosaic—

formed by extensive management and composed of many

biotopes without any sharp borders between them. Since

human impact increased in time, and the use of land

became more rationalized and intensive, this mosaic

acquired a coarser structure. At the same time many plant

taxa connected with the previous chaotic land-use lost their

biotopes.

Conclusions

Pollen spectra derived from urban deposits give a good

reflection of the changes that occurred in Bohemia dur-

ing the early to high medieval transition. These changes

were complex and affected all the components of the

world at that time—culture, society, art and also land-

scape (Le Goff 2005). It seems sensible to interpret our

pollen analytical results mostly at the landscape level,

which is in good agreement with Schofield (1994). The

Great Medieval Change in what is now the Czech

Republic is reflected by most of the pollen diagrams

from natural sediments (Pokorny 2004). Compared to

these pollen data from natural sediments, the pollen

spectra derived from urban deposits in medieval Prague

showed some aspects of this process in more detail. On

the other hand, compared to macroremains analysis,

pollen analysis provides a less detailed, but more com-

plete view of the broader aspects of vegetation affected

by people during the period studied. We focused on the

early medieval landscape because its appearance is still

rather unknown and we could consider a large pollen

data set from cultural sediments as being a rich source of

information. It seems to be a general trend that in the

early medieval period, human impact still caused some

increase in a landscape diversity while in the high

medieval period anthropogenic pressure intensified so

that that the landscape diversity was reduced. Further in

our study, our results have showed that non-specific

archaeological contexts such as cultural layers or path

deposits yield pollen spectra that can best inform us

about the types of biotopes that were a part of the past

landscape, including urban vegetation. To carry out good

pollen analytical research at any archaeological site we

think that following rules are sensible:

– to obtain a rather large set of samples from a particular

archaeological site and sample as many archaeological

contexts (objects, layers) as possible. Only in this way

we can be sure which factors, such as age, taphonomy,

etc., caused differences between pollen spectra derived

from particular samples

– to search also in high medieval contexts for less defined

types of archaeological deposits such as path deposits

or other such material that sedimented rather

spontaneously

– to pay attention to a parallel sampling and analyses for

both pollen and plant macroremains.


123

Acknowledgments We are grateful to Petr Kunes for his help with

statistical tests and to Dagmar Dreslerova for her useful critical

comments on the manuscript. This study is part of a project GA

ASCR no. IAAX 00020701.

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